Up Country In his novel Up Country, Alden R. Carter writes about how hard
life is for children in the adolescent era by portraying the actions off Carl
Staggers, a teenager surviving his mothers alcoholism and his car radio thief
ring gone to disarray. Carl is a tragic hero who rambles through this time
period by trying to make things right. He is also accompanied by characters
close to him as the novel progresses. Carl is a young man with great hopes and
dreams to become an electrical engineer. The problem is that he and his mother
are deeply in debt, and Veronica Staggers, Carl’s mother, is an alcoholic who is
brought home by the cops almost every week. Carl has the bright idea to use an
opportunity that arose to earn money to go to a good technical college and earn
a degree in electrical engineering. In this little opportunity, Carl repairs
stolen stereos that he receives from his partner in crime, changes the serial
number, and places the stereo into a company box for resale. Although this seems
like the perfect crime, something goes terribly wrong with his admirable plan
and Carl gets busted for the radios along with all of the other juveniles
helping him. Ironically he was busted for the car audio equipment because of his
mother who was thrown in a detox center for her alcohol abuse. Therefore, Carl
was sent “up country” to stay with his aunt, uncle, and cousin whom he hasn’t
seen for a little over eight years. That’s when all of the trouble starts,
including a run in with the local redneck bully and his girlfriend.
On a good note while staying with his secondary family, he meets a wonderful
country girl with whom he ultimately stays with instead of going back to live
with his mother, who cleans her self up and moves on with her life. Carl is
sentenced to public work and is basically let off easy on the condition that he
stay in school and earn that electrical degree. The theme of this story is that
even the most least likely person can get what they long for. Carl had always
yearned for a stable family. When he was busted and was forced to move in with
his aunt and uncle he, at first, dreaded the idea. He was moving in with a
family he hadn’t seen for eight years! As things moved on, Carl formed a niche
in the little town of Blind River. He formed a relationship with his new family
and found a girl that he learned to love. In the novella Up Country, examples of
irony, a tragic character, and the stereotyped character. Carl’s cousin Bob who
shows the traits of the conventional red-neck, the buck-tooth, improper English,
yokel, where Carl himself shows the typical characteristics of the tragic hero.
A hero, who through his own choice, was caught up an a series of events that
invariably results in disaster. In my opinion this was a great book for any
teenager to read. Most teenagers feel that their life is poor, weak, and
pathetic, but if only they could take a look at Carl’s life they could see how
hard life can sometimes be. Carl is an exceptional student who works hard for
his goals, but he knows he will never reach them because of his home and family.
Also most adolescents feel they need to take the wrong path to get what they
want. Carl took the wrong path and he ended up with a good and stable family, a
girlfriend, and a hope to reach is goal. So I say take the wrong path and maybe
you could end up with what Carl had. All things considered, Carl had an
extremely hard life with his alcoholic mother. But as you will see, when he got
away from her he matured and grew emotionally. He essentially got everything he
prayed and wished for. Consider this, if you were in Carl’s shoes, what would
you do? What path would you take?
Bibliography
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